Where to start with Faeriecon? Best to start at the beginning, I suppose.

Just the facts ma'am

I arrived in the early evening on Friday. There were two main areas, separated by an escalator. The upper area hosted some merchants, as well the primary musical programming. The lower area hosted the panels, the gaming area, and the primary dealer's room.

The "feel" was cosy, almost crowded, but not quite. Traffic moved pretty well and everyone was at least polite if not out and out friendly.

The things I attended went off with very few problems, the sound checks made the Balls start a little late, but nothing significant. In one case a problem actually worked out well(for one of the panels the only presenter to show up was Charles DeLint, so it turned into an hour interview with him..which was awwweessoommee).

The age range was quite a bit higher than I though it would be(more of 23-35). Also unexpected was the fact that flirting seemed to be a big hobby among many people this weekend. *shrug* Who knew?

The Good

Where to start? The merchants were very good. There was good variety and just the right number of merchants. Also the booths contributed to the overall look and feel of the space, which was very well executed.

The Good and Bad Faerie Ball. Wow. Just Wow. All of the performers were awesome.

Also, the Sunday "morning after" SJ Tucker(who is a sweetheart) performance was a great idea and worked out well.

The costumes were wonderful and there were all sorts of nooks and crannies where one could perch to people watch.

The people were very kind and friendly.

The "Maybe not quite so good"

The one thing I noticed is that there was somewhat of a lack of non-musical programming. The programming that was there was very high quality, but it was limited in scope and number. I think that there is a lot of room for more volunteer presentations in such areas as the history of Faerie, how Faerie is viewed in other cultures, hands on crafts workshops, and so forth.

Personal Observations

It was a wonderful weekend overall. It was very much like a brief journey to Faerie. The big difference being that I brought back a lot more stuff than one usually would when returning from Faerie. It also gave me a lot to think about. A lot to think about indeed. And now I'll sign off before I get too "prosy".